Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Can I Kiss You? Event opens eyes, ears, hearts.

Nello Faulk is familiar with being in front of large crowds. As a leader of the FAU football team’s offense, he performs on the field in front of thousands of fans. But on Tuesday evening in the Life Long Learning Auditorium on the Boca Raton campus, Faulk was laughed at when performing.

During the “Can I Kiss You?” seminar presented by author Mike Domitrz, Faulk volunteered to go on stage and show the crowd what he does to show a woman he is ready to kiss her. Faulk was light-hearted about it and walked off stage with a prize from Domitrz.

On the other hand, when a female from the audience was called on stage to show what body language she would use to show a guy she wants to kiss him, she put her hand on his knee. The males in the audience responded with two answers: she wants to kiss me and/or she wants to physically do more than just kiss.

This is just what Domitrz wanted to see. He proved, just through that simple presentation, that males and females can’t read each other's body language and that’s how accidents happen.

Domitrz was not shy to tell the story of how his bigger sister was raped. Domitrz, who is now doing speeches around the country about sexual assault, told the crowd he wanted to get revenge on the rapist. He is getting revenge – in the form of best selling books, lectures and educating young minds.

He compared two friends asking each other to borrow $5 to asking for a kiss. Paraphrased, he said that if you can ask a friend to borrow money, why can’t you ask your partner to touch them physically? The crowd was stunned and silent.

Through audience reaction, he proved that if a guy asks a girl to kiss her, it’s not awkward at all. If she says yes to the kiss - then good. If she says no to the kiss, he suggested responding with “I’m glad I asked. I would never want to disrespect you.” The female audience members agreed that this was a “cute” thing to say and that it’s the right thing to do.

Domitrz did mention that both males and females are sexually assaulted. He also proved a point about a very popular poster on college campuses. The poster "No Means No" is targeted to prevent sexual assault. He suggests the poster should instead say "Did You Ask?"

About 500 student athletes, Greek life and on-campus residents attended the event. The event was hosted by Today and Beyond Wellness.